Make Your Own Pet Food

We've received a bunch of emails lately about cooking for pets. The news of tainted pet food that sadly killed a bunch of beloved ones, and sickened many more, has gotten everyone clamoring for ways to make treats of their own. I don't actually own any pets (we're still working on asking the landlord to bend her no dogs policy), but can understand why this is a big concern. So to help out, I've rounded up a bunch of (better-educated-than-me) posts and resources to help you on your journey of homemade cuisine for your pets.

However, before you start be sure to check with your veterinarian first. Each animal and species may have different dietary needs.

The best solution to safe pet food without having to become a pet nutritionist and cooking it yourself is to buy holistic human grade USA ingredient pet food. If you go to http://familypetfood.com you can read about holistic pet food and order some free samples for your pets. Mine loves it and that is what I'm feeding him now along with some table scraps.

Thanks for the post and comments. My kitty survived eating the contaminated food after spending time at the pet hospital. I feel so very lucky to still have her.
But now I am having problems finding a wet food - she doesn't like the kind my vet prescribed. Due to her kidney failure, she has special needs so I have been trying to find a solution. I will check out some of the resources listed. I am feeling more optimistic...

Hi!
If you are looking for home-cooked pet diets, try balanceit.com. It has recipes created by board certified veterinary nutritionists, and the website balances the recipe just for your dog or cat. For a free recipe, you can type in "homemade" in the promo box at the checkout
Leslie Melnyk
lmelnyk@dvmconsulting.com

Thanks for posting Yum - great links :)
I also love Three Dog Bakery! It sounds silly but a bunch of friends from the animal hospital I used to work at (a looooong time ago!) would gather all our dogs together and have some sort of a play date and we'd order from the bakery. They loved it!! They have great stuff.

We started making our dogs food. We basically make a chicken soup. Take chicken breast, whole grain rice, carrots, and potatoes and cook through. Then you let it sit and soak up the the juice. Our dogs dry food wasnt recalled so we mix a little of it in with the homemade stuff so the dogs dont get sick. Also we got them a chewable vitamin and mineral supplement

thanks for the new ideas.. since the recall on the dog food i have been really afraid of what I'm feeding my puppy.. He is a mini dachshund and weighs about 3 pounds so there is limited on what his little belly can handle. When i got him i thought about cooking him his food on a daily basis but i cant seem to find any decent recipes for daily meals. Thanks for the help!

i make my parrot's food myself, but that's just the way most people do it since all-seed diets are basically poisonous to birds. there are some commercial products for birds, but nothing is better than fresh veggies.

I love, love, love Three Dog Bakery cookbooks! Also they are an actual pet food bakery, website is the name, books can be found by searching under them on Amazon, Barnes and Noble Etc.
My dogs haven't turned down homemade treats from either of their books yet! Last night I made them Pupovers from the Three Dog Bakery cookbook. Basically popovers with cooked chicken in the middle. They went over quite well and were very easy to put together in minutes.
Also we feed our dogs Innova Evo dry food (Evo is the grain free kind as we have a rice sensitive dog)in case anyone is looking for "safe brands." I am a HUGE believer in ONLY feeding dog food that is AAFCO approved. We use Merrick wet food too with great success.
I also make them treats from "their cookbooks" at least once a week. They have recipes that include entrees and desserts. I also think the library is a fantastic place to preview cookbooks! Thanks for all these links!

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